“Oh, sweetheart.” My mom is gripping her coffee cup in two shaking hands. “What can we do? What do you need?”
I shrug. “Well, that’s why I wanted to talk to you. I moved home last year because I couldn’t face this alone, but I wasn’t ready to deal with it at all. I haven’t scheduled the tests yet. But I want to now.”
“We’ll drive you. We’ll be in the room with you. Anything you need, Gracie. We will hold your hand through it all. Anything you need.” My father’s voice cracks, and his eyes shimmer with tears. “And if you can’t have kids, you can’t have kids. Kids aren’t all they are cracked up to be.”
“Mario,” my mother cries out, but something about the sincerity in Dad’s voice has me cracking up.
“Pops…” I laugh so hard my stomach starts to hurt. “Nice one.”
My dad looks confused, like he didn’t realize he made a joke, and he shrugs. “Well, I’m serious. You kids mean the world to me, but life isn’t about just getting married and popping out babies.”
Dad gets up from the chair and stands in front of me. “Gracie, you’re an artist. You’re passionate. You’re the most powerful, beautiful woman. Your life has value and meaning, no matter what. Stay here forever and adopt a hundred more shelter pets. I don’t care. We love you, kiddo.” He squeezes my hands and looks at my mom. “The real question is who do I got to pay to crack the kneecaps of this son of a bitch?”
“Mario, stop.” My mom stands up and drags her chair close to me. She cups my face in her hands. “We’re not going to hurt that man. Unless you want us to.”
I shake my head, knowing full well my parents are only half kidding. They’d probably wage war for me if I asked them to. And I love them for it. But Levi Olson is a selfish prick. Karma will find its way to him. My only job is to take care of myself.
“I want to forget about him and focus on me. On healing.” I face my mom. “But I do have a favor to ask.”
13
RYDER
I’m stirringpowdered cheese and milk into cooked macaroni noodles with one hand and flipping chicken breasts in a pan so they don’t burn when my phone rings. Austin never calls, so I pick up the phone on the first ring.
“Hey, man. I’m cooking dinner. You’re on speaker.”
I can see Cora and Luke playing together while I cook, which warms my heart. Luke doesn’t always have the patience to show his sister his trains, but since he’s started school, he’s learned a whole new way of dealing with other kids. Sometimes I love what I see, like now, when he’s clearly demonstrating how to be patient with others. And then other times, he calls his sister a fuckface, and I have to write a carefully worded email to Mrs. Lee, asking who the hell is saying fuckface in the first grade… Yeah. The changes in my son don’t always make me proud.
Parenthood, man. It’s a trip.
“Ryder!” Austin sounds peppy and breathless, so basically the same as always. His consistency is one of the things I love most about him. “S’all good, brother. Hey, I’m calling for a quick favor. You got time this weekend?”
“Depends. Time for what?” I say honestly. “I kept the kids in swimming lessons, so we’re busy tomorrow morning. You need me to come home? I could probably drive up after swim on Saturday.”
I make sure the burner is off under the dinosaur-shaped mac and cheese and focus on not burning the chicken. My mind is already spinning. A trip to Columbus could be great. Maybe Gracie would be able to come? Ah, fuck. She works almost every Saturday, so probably not. Maybe we could go up on Sunday? She’s always off on Sunday when the shop’s closed.
“No, man. Nothing like that. I’m thinking about driving to you. You got a couch I can sleep on if I invite myself to Star Falls for the weekend?”
“Are you serious? Hell yeah, man. When you thinking?”
This is a surprise. Austin’s always watching sports, managing games, or writing about them when he’s not working his nine-to-five. For him to take a drive out to see us? I wonder what’s going on to bring him out to Star Falls.
“You okay, man? Anything serious going on?”
“Serious, yeah, but not bad or anything.” He sounds happy, so maybe he’s met someone? News like that would hardly justify a trip out here, but he sounds even better than his usual happy self, if that’s possible. “I’m not sick or anything. I just wanted to hang with you and talk. See my best friend’s kids before they forget what I look like.”
It’s only been three months since we moved to Star Falls, but fuck, it feels like a lifetime since we left Columbus.
“Just come. You’re welcome anytime. I legit mean it. This is a safe small town. I’ll leave the key under the mat, and you just come whenever and let yourself in.”
“Key under the mat?” Austin blows out a loud, long breath and laughs. “That is a whole world away from Columbus. But why do you need to leave a key out? You got somebody you’re seeing?”
His question is a fair one, but I don’t know how to answer it. “I mean, maybe? Sort of. I met someone, but…” I pierce the chicken with a cooking thermometer and watch the numbers rise. “We haven’t even been on a real date yet. The childcare situation is all screwed up here. I’m interested, but so far, it’s been tables for four on all our dates.”
Satisfied that the chicken is done, I pull the frozen broccoli out of the freezer and let the chicken rest while I toss the whole bag into a pot of boiling water.
“Man, that sucks. Well, that settles it. I’m taking tomorrow afternoon off work. I’ll be out to your place before dinner, and we can hang. Is there someplace I can take the kids Saturday night? Give you a date night while I’m in town?”
